Weird problem, need more suggestions!

[98_birdman]

Ok so for the last 2 days I noticed my car making a squeek from the engine compartment. Today I had time to check it out. At first I thought it was the crankshaft pulley so I sprayed some lube onto it. Started the car back up and nothing happened. It goes away while driving but is there while at idle.

I just left it for a while and went to get gas, when I finished filling up I started the car and decided to check the oil cause I just put this motor in and wanted to see that it wasn't burning any. Well when I pulled out the dipstick I got this loud vaccum noise, either air was pulled into the motor(most likely) or motor was blown out....the noise went away. I put the dipstick back in after wiping it off and waiting a couple seconds, the sound came back....and once again, when I pulled the dipstick out I heard the same vaccum noise and the squeek was gone. I tried the same thing keeping the dipstick in and waiting for the squeek and removing the oil filler cap and heard the vaccum noise and the squeek was gone.

Does anyone have a clue what this is? I was told from another site that I could probably just get a crankcase breather and the problem would be solved....what should I do?

[FunkZ]

Check your PCV valve, make sure it rattles. Should be in the intake under a cover.

Also, the 3.4 has a breather inlet on the passenger-side valve cover, the 3.8 has something similar I'm sure. Make sure that isn't clogged.

[98_birdman]

can you show me a picture of your pass. side valve cover cause im 99.9999% sure we dont have one

[FunkZ]

Air has to be able to pass through the crankcase. It goes out through the PCV, but it needs somewhere to draw fresh air in. On the 3.4 it pulls this out of the intake just in front of the throttle body. That's the tube I was referring to. Just looked at a pic of the 3.8 and I don't see anything like what the 3.4 has.

In your case it sounds like something has gotten clogged up and is creating a vacuum in the crankcase. Hopefully some 3.8 owner will chime in here.

[arthansen]

The 3.8 has a small port inside the Throttle Body that goes directly into the crank case (look into the front of the throttle body, it will be on the left). Since there is a vacumn in the throttle body, it constantly pulls air out of the crank case. If this were blocked, you would have no way of venting the crank case.

When the motor was out, did you have the throttle body off the intake? Maybe the gasket blocked the hole during re-assmbly.

The SC guys block this hole on purpose and use a breather on the oil fill hole in the valve cover. If for some reason you want to leave it blocked, get a breather. Good luck.

[98_birdman]

arthansen, thanks! that is exactly what i suspected it to be but wasnt sure....i had a problem a while back where i snapped one of the TB bolts off in the upper intake and then when trying to drill and tap it, the tap also broke off...and since there is no TB bypass for the 3.8 i took some cold weld and filled all the holes so the coolant couldnt pass through...and after looking at a spare TB i have i realized i plugged one hole that shouldn't have been...i guess ill have to drill it open again

[Question]

LOL, that might be a good idea Birdman...